Up In Arms

67 Years After The `War To End Wars,` The World Remains Mired In Conflict

November 10, 1985|By Article by The Tribune foreign staff Contributing to this article were Jonathan Broder, based in Tel Aviv, whose report covers the Middle East; Ray Moseley, London, reporting from Europe and Africa; Ron Yates, Tokyo, from various points in Asia and the Pacific; and Vincent Schodolski, Mexico City, from Central and South America.

Conflict also touches two other South African neighbors, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The Marxist government that took power when Mozambique gained independence from Portugal in 1975 has been under attack from a right-wing guerrilla movement that apparently gets arms and financing from such diverse sources as the Comoro Islands, Malawi and Portuguese business interests. Until last year the principal support for the guerrillas came from South Africa. But that country agreed to drop its support for the guerrillas in exchange for Mozam-

bique`s agreement to close off its territory to the African National Congress. Since 1978 more than 1,000 people have been killed in Mozambique`s war with the guerrillas.

Zimbabwe, which gained its independence from Britain in 1980, has been torn ever since by conflict between the two black tribes that fought together to overthrow white rule there when the country was known as Rhodesia. The Shona tribe of Prime Minister Robert Mugabe, in the majority, has been in conflict with the Ndebeles, who are headed by Joshua Nkomo.

Ndebele dissidents have taken to the bush in western Zimbabwe to fight the government, and North Korean-trained government forces that were sent in to deal with them have been accused of committing widespread atrocities against the civilian Ndebele population. Since 1980 at least 1,000 people have been killed in clashes between Shonas and Ndebeles. There are signs, however, of the conflict coming to an end; both Mugabe and Nkomo now seem willing to join forces, and merger talks are under way.

Uganda, in central Africa, has been suffering from conflict since former dictator Idi Amin was overthrown by the Tanzanian army and Ugandan dissidents in 1979. The armed forces have remained undisciplined and have killed, beaten and robbed civilians on many occasions. When former President Milton Obote, who had been overthrown by Amin, returned to power in rigged elections in 1980, part of the army revolted and took to the bush to oppose his government. Obote was overthrown again last summer and the new government has tried to make peace with the rebels. Hundreds and perhaps thousands have been killed in the Ugandan conflict since 1980.

The poverty and resulting political instability in Africa, where many countries are under military rule, leaves it vulnerable to frequent wars, coups and other upheavals. Zaire has had to cope with two rebel invasions of its cobalt-rich and copper-rich Shaba province since 1977, and President Mobutu Sese Seko`s hold on power always remains questionable. In Sudan, there is perennial hostility between the Christian and animist south and the Moslem north despite the end of a civil war several years ago.

A civil war that has been raging since the 1960s in the south of Sudan has intensified since the overthrow last April of President Gaafar Nimeiri. The new Sudanese leaders have made ending the war their top priority, offering a unilateral ceasefire, amnesty and more autonomy to the rebels. But these and other approaches have failed, and Western diplomats in Khartoum see more fighting now between rebels and government forces than ever before.

The rebels have been moving steadily north, recently attacking a town less than 300 miles south of Khartoum. At the same time large numbers of rebel troops have been deployed along the Ethiopian border and have surrounded several government-controlled towns in the south.

The rebels maintain a major training camp in southwest Ethiopia, where until recently they received financial backing from Libya`s Moammar Khadafy. That backing ended as part of the recent Sudanese-Libyan reconciliation. The expansion of the conflict in recent weeks, however, indicates no shortage of arms and supplies for the rebels.

MIDDLE EAST

In the spring of 1970, two funerals took place in Israel that seemed to capture the timeless, intractable nature of war in the Middle East. Israel and Egypt were then locked in a bloody war of attrition at the Suez Canal. Fierce artillery barrages claimed scores of lives every week. At the same time Israeli archeologists were excavating a site called Masada, exhuming artifacts from another struggle that had raged 2,000 years earlier, when some 600 Jewish fighters committed mass suicide rather than surrender to the Romans.

The excavations uncovered the bones of 28 Masada defenders in a cave near the Dead Sea. Meanwhile, as the war at the canal intensified, Egyptian barrages one day killed a dozen Israeli soldiers. The next morning the dead soldiers were buried with full military honors. That afternoon, at another military cemetery, the remains of the Masada defenders received the identical funeral, army pallbearers shouldering flag-draped wooden coffins, a 21-gun salute, mourners murmuring the traditional Jewish prayer for the dead. Until they were told, many Israelis believed the 28 had died at the canal the day before.